BORTHWICK,
Baron, a title, at present dormant, in the peerage of Scotland, formerly
possessed by a family of that name in the county of Edinburgh. Douglas is of
opinion that the surname is local, assumed “from lands of that name on
Borthwick water, in the county of Selkirk.” The name of the water of
Borthwick, like that of most streams in Scotland, is of immemorial
antiquity, and like the similar one of Borthoe in Forfarshire, is also of
British Celtic origin. It is said, but on no reliable authority, that the
ancestor of the noble house of Borthwick was one Andreas, a son of the lord
of Burtick in Livonia, who accompanied Edgar Atheling and his two sisters,
Margaret, afterwards wife of Malcolm Canmore, and Christina, to Scotland in
1067, and obtaining possession of some lands in this country, settled here.
His posterity, accordingly, with some small alteration in the spelling, re
stated to have assumed the surname of Borthwick, from the birthplace of
their progenitor. The territorial origin of the name is, however, by far the
more probable one.

In the reign of
King David the Second, Thomas de Borthwick obtained, probably by excambion,
or exchange with his patrimony of Borthwick, some lands near Lauder in
Berwickshire, from Robert Lauder of Quarrelwood, and in that of King Robert
the Second, Sir William Borthwick was possessor of the lands of Catkune in
Edinburghshire, as appears by a charter dated in 1378. These lands he called
Borthwick after his own name. On the estate of Harvieston in the parish of
Borthwick are the ruins of a very ancient castle, known by the name of the
old castle of Catkune, which are traditionally assigned as the seat of the
family before it became possessed of the domain of Locherworth. Previous to
their assumption of the title of Borthwick of that ilk, they were
promiscuously designed as of Catkune, Legertwood, and Herriot-muir.

During the
fifteenth and following centuries, the lords of Borthwick had immense
possessions and great influence in that portion of Edinburghshire which now
forms the parish of Borthwick, a district famed for its romantic scenery.

The first Lord
Borthwick was Sir William Borthwick of Borthwick, in the reign of James the
First; but previous to him there seems to have been two persons of the name
of Sir William Borthwick, occupiers of the castle of Catkune. A Sir William
de Borthwick is repeatedly mentioned by Rymer in his Foedera, vols. 8 and 9;
and Douglas (Peerage, App. vol. ii. page 651.) Enumerates several
grants of land, charters, and public appointments held by a personage of
this name. About 1387 Sir William de Borthwick witnessed a charter of James,
second earl of Douglas and Mar, of the barony of Drumlanrig. In the reign of
King Robert the Third, William de Borthwick obtained, from Margaret,
countess of Mar and Angus, a charter of the lands of Ludniche and Wester
Drumcanachy in the barony of Kirriemuir, Forfarshire. In October and
November 1398 Sir William of Borthwic was one of the commissioners on the
part of the duke of Rothesay, to conclude a treaty for a truce and the
liberation of prisoners, with commissioners on the part of John, duke of
Lancaster, at Haudenstank and Clochmabanestane. William Berthewyk, chivaler,
was a commissioner to treat with the English 21st December 1400,
and had a letter of safe conduct as such into England, 26th April
1401. On 24th August 1404, William de Borthwick, miles, was a
commissioner to treat with the English, and again 8th march and
27th August 1405. On the 21st of September the same
year William de Borthwick, miles, was one of the hostages for the earl of
Douglas, who had been taken prisoner at the battle of Homildon. On 27th
April 1409, a safe conduct was granted to William de Borthwick de
Lidgertwood, knight, as a commissioner from Scotland to England; and William
de Borthwik, miles, was one of the commissioners to treat with the English,
21st April 1410. Robert, duke of Albany, granted a charter, dated
4th June of that year, ‘dilecto nostro Willielmo de Borthwick,
militi,’ of the lands of Borthwic and Throftootys in Selkirkshire, on the
resignation of Robert Scott, (probably a second excambion by which he
resumed the ancient patrimony of the family). On 23d May and 24th
September 1411, and 7th August 1413, Sir William de Borthwick was
a Commissioner for treating with the English. William, dominus de Borthwick,
in the year 1421, was one of the hostages for the return of James the First,
when it was proposed that his Majesty should visit Scotland, 31st
May of that year, on his parole. A safe conduct was granted to William de
Borthwic de eodem, miles, to proceed to England as a commissioner to treat
for the release of James the First, 12th May 1423, and to William
de Borthwick, dominus de Heriot, to repair to that kingdom to meet his
majesty, 13th February 1424. Willielmus Borthwick ejusdam, miles,
was one of the jury on the trial of Murdoch, duke of Albany in May 1425.

Sir William
Borthwick, father of the first Lord Borthwick, besides his son, had two
daughters; Janet, married, first, to James Douglas, Lord Dalkeith, and
secondly to George Crichton, earl of Caithness. The second daughter became
the wife of Sir John Oliphant.

The son appears to
have been created Lord Borthwick before 1430 – it is supposed in 1424 – for
in October of the former year, at the baptism of the twin sons of James the
First, several knights were created, and among the rest William, son and
heir of Lord Borthwick. In the records there is no patent found constituting
this peerage. The first Lord Borthwick was one of the substituted hostages
for the ransom of King James the First. He was sent to England 16th
July 1425, and remained there till 9th July 1427, when an order
was issued for his liberation, he being then in the custody of the bishop of
Durham. By a charter under the great seal, of date June 2, 1430, he obtained
a license from James the First, to build a castle on the spot called the
Mote of Lochwarret or Locherworth, which he had bought from Sir William Hay.
In the description of Borthwick parish in the new Statistical Account of
Scotland [vol. i. p. 162] it is stated that the family of Hay, afterwards of
Yester, ancestor of the Marquises of Tweeddale, were at that time occupiers
of the domain of Locherworth. The Borthwicks and the Hays appear to have
thus been neighbours, and there is a tradition relating to the old castle of
Catkune, that in consequence of the then possessor of it, of the Borthwick
family, having married a lady of the family of Hay, the Hays consented to
part with a portion of their property to the knight of Catkune. Another
version of the tradition is, that the lady belonged to the house of Douglas.
Lord Borthwick erected a stately castle on the spot indicated, and, under
the name of borthwick castle, it became the chief residence of the family,
giving its name to the parish in which it is situated. “Like many other
baronial residences in Scotland, he built this magnificent pile upon the
very verge of his own property. The usual reason for choosing such a
situation was hinted by a northern baron, to whom a friend objected this
circumstance as a defect, at least an inconvenience: ‘We’ll brizz yont’
(Anglicé, press forward,) was the baron’s answer; which expressed the policy
of the powerful in settling their residence upon the extremity of their
domains, as giving pretext and opportunity for making acquisitions at the
expense of their neighbours. William de Hay, from whom Sir William Borthwick
had acquired a part of Locherworth, is said to have looked with envy upon
the splendid castle of his neighbour and to have vented his spleen by
building a mill upon the lands of Little Locherworth, immediately beneath
the knoll on which the fortress was situated, declaring that the lord of
Borthwick, in all his pride, should never be out of the hearing of the clack
of his neighbour’s mill. The mill, accordingly, still exists, as a property
independent of the castle.” [Provincial Antiquities, p. 200.] The
first Lord Borthwick died before 1458. He seems to have been cupbearer to
William St. Clair, earl and prince of Orkney, founder of Roslin chapel, who
maintained his court at Roslin castle with regal magnificence. In an aisle
of the old church of Borthwick may still be seen two monumental statues, in
a recumbent posture, of this lord Borthwick and his lady. His lordship is in
full armour, while his lady, a beautiful female figure, with a gentle and
handsome cast of features, appears dressed in the full robes of her time. He
left two sons; William, his successor, and John de Borthwick, who acquired
the lands of Crookston, in 1446.

William, second
Lord Borthwick, was, in 1425, in the lifetime of his father, and under the
appellation of Williehmus de Borthwick, junior, ambassador, with the bishops
of Aberdeen and Dunblane, and seven others, to the court of Rome. He had a
safe conduct as a commissioner to treat with the English, 13th
July 1459, and on 1st September that year he concluded a treaty
with them at Newcastle. On 24th September 1461, he had a safe
conduct as an ambassador to England, and on 5th December 1463, he
had another. He seems to have died about 1464. He had a daughter, Margaret,
married to Sir John Maxwell of Calderwood, and three sons, William, third
Lord Borthwick; Sir Thomas Borthwick of Colylaw, and James Borthwick of
Glengelt.

His son, William,
third Lord Borthwick, sat in parliament 9th October 1466, and 14th
October 1467, and in several subsequent parliaments, down to 1505. He had a
safe conduct as ambassador to England 7th August 1471, and again
on 24th August 1473. Sir William of Borthwic, knight, his son,
appears as defender in an action of debt, 4th July 1476, when
judgment was given against him. Lord Borthwick was one of the lords of
articles pro baronibus, in the parliament that sat down at Edinburgh 4th
October 1479. William, Lord Borthwick, and Sir William of Borthwick, knight,
his son and heir, had a judgment in their favour 16th October of
that year, and of the same date Sir William of Borthwick, knight, is sole
defender in a civil suit. On 20th September 1484, Lord Borthwick
was one of the guarantees of a treaty with England, [Faeders xii. p.
241,] and on 30th September 1497, and 12th July 1499,
he was one of the conservators of a treaty with the same power. The third
Lord Borthwick was slain at the battle of Flodden, 9th September
1513. He married Maryota de Hope Pringle, or Hoppringill, as it was spelled
in those days, and with several daughters, had two sons, William, his
successor, and Alexander Borthwick of Nenthorn.

William, fourth
Lord Borthwick, immediately after the battle of Flodden, was appointed by
the council of the kingdom to the command of the castle of Stirling, which
was ordered to be well fortified, with the important charge of the infant
monarch, James the Fifth. He set his seal to the treaty with England 7th
October 1517. The fourth lord died in 1542. He had married in 1491,
Margaret, eldest daughter of John, Lord Hay of Yester, by whom, besides two
daughters, he had two sons, the master of Borthwick, who died in the
lifetime of his father, and John, fifth lord.

John, fifth Lord
Borthwick, opposed the Reformation in 1560, saying that he would believe as
his fathers had done before him. He assisted the queen regent against the
Lords of the Congregation, and died in 1565. He married Lady Isabel Lindsay,
eldest daughter of David, seventh earl of Crawford, by whom he had a son,
William, sixth Lord Borthwick, and a daughter, Mariota, married to Andrew
Hope Pringle of Galashiels. Notwithstanding his attachment to the ‘ancient
religion,’ his servants, in 1547, were guilty of an insult to a church
officer, which one would scarcely have expected would have been committed at
Borthwick castle. The incident, whimsical enough in its way, is thus related
by Sir Walter Scott, who has published his authority in an extract from the
Consistory Register of St. Andrews: “In consequence of a process betwixt
Master George Hay de Minzeans and the Lord Borthwick, letters of
excommunication had passed against the latter, on account of the contumacy
of certain witnesses. William Langlands, an apparitor or macer [bacularius]
of the see of St. Andrews, presented these letters to the curate of the
church of Borthwick, requiring him to publish the same at the service of
high mass. It seems that the inhabitants of the castle were at this time
engaged in the favourite sport of enacting the Abbot of Unreason, a species
of high jinks, in which a mimie prelate was elected, who, like the
lord of Misrule in England, turned all sort of lawful authority, and
particularly the church ritual, into ridicule. This frolicsome person, with
his retinue, notwithstanding of the apparitor’s character, entered the
church, seized upon the primate’s officer without hesitation, and dragging
him to the mill-dam, on the south side of the castle, compelled him to leap
into the water. Not contented with this partial immersion, the Abbot of
Unreason pronounced that Mr. William Langlands was not yet sufficiently
bathed, and therefore caused his assistance to lay him on his back in the
stream, and duck him in the most satisfactory and perfect manner. The
unfortunate apparitor was then conducted back to the church, where, for his
refreshment after his bath, the letters of excommunication were torn to
pieces, and steeped in a bowl of wine; the mock abbot being probably of
opinion that a tough parchment was but dry eating. Langlands was compelled
to eat the letters, and swallow the wine, with the comfortable assurance,
that if any more such letters should arrive during the continuance of his
office, they should ‘a’ gang the same gait.’”

William, sixth
Lord Borthwick, was a steady friend of Queen Mary. That ill-fated princess
occasionally visited the castle of Borthwick, and at last took refuge in it
with Bothwell, when they were nearly surprised by the party of Murray and
Morton. Bothwell escaped before their arrival, and Mary fled, two days
afterwards, in men’s apparel.

Lord Borthwick
married Grizel, eldest daughter of Sir Walter Scott of Branxholm, ancestor
of the duke of Buccleuch, by whom he had two sons, William, master of
Borthwick, who died before his father, and James, seventh Lord Borthwick. On
15th January 1579-80, Lady Borthwick and her two sisters were
made, at the same time, the subjects of legal prosecution by the dominant
party, on account of alleged gross irregularity of life and manners. As none
of these charges were established, notwithstanding the predominance and
spite of the prosecuting party, it is possible they were intended merely to
excite the popular odium against Lord Borthwick and the ladies of his family
as supporters of the queen. But it is a sad picture of the state of Scotland
at the time, whether we can suppose the accusations to be true or false.
[See Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, vol. i. part ii. pp. 84 and 84.]

James, seventh
Lord Borthwick, married Margaret Hay, eldest daughter of William, Lord Hay
of Yester. December 23, 1595, he was charged, with sundry other persons,
“under deidly feud” with the lairds of Craigmillar and Bass, to appear
before the King and Council ‘at Haliruidhous;’ and ‘that they keip thair
ludgeingis eftir thair cuming, quhill (till) thay be speciallie sent for,’
&c. At his apprehension for not obeying the order, there seems to have been
a riot, for on 15th January following, John Halden, dagmaker, and
others, were ordered to be denounced rebels, for not answering ‘tuiching the
riot committit be thame laitlie, aganis the Provost and Bailleis of the
Burgh of Edinburgh, in thair convoy and taking to warde of James, Lord
Borthuik.’ July 30, 1603, Marion Wardlaw, spouse of John Kennedy,
gauntlet-maker in Edinburgh, was dilated of ‘airt, pairt, red and counsall
of the murder committit be Williame Boirthuik, tutor of Boirthuik, Johne
Boirthuik his brother, and utheris, thair complices, in cuming to James
Frammis’ dwelling-house in the Cannogait, under scylence of nycht, and
strykeing of him nyne straikis in the body and heid, to the effusion of his
body, and levand him for deid.”

The seventh lord
was succeeded by his son, John, eighth Lord Borthwick, who married Lady
Lilias Kerr, fifth daughter of Mark, first earl of Lothian, by whom, besides
a daughter, he had a son, John, ninth Lord Borthwick, born 9th
February 1616. He adhered firmly to the royal cause during all the time of
the civil war. After the battle of Dunbar borthwick castle held out against
Cromwell until artillery were opened upon it; but seeing no appearance of
relief, Lord Borthwick surrendered on honourable terms, namely, liberty to
march out with his lady and family unmolested, and fifteen days allowed to
remove his effects. He married, 23d August 1649, Lady Elizabeth Kerr, second
daughter of William, third earl of Lothian, but died without issue in 1672.

From that period
till 1762, the title remained dormant. In 1727, Henry Borthwick, descendant
and heir male of Alexander Borthwick of Nenthorn, second son of the third
Lord Borthwick, was served heir male in general of William, the first lord
Borthwick, and in 1794, he voted as Lord Borthwick at the election of a
representative peer, and continued to do so at all the subsequent elections
till 14th December 1761, when the House of Lords made an order on
him and on several others who had assumed dormant peerages, not to take on
them their titles until the same should be allowed in due course of law.

The
above-mentioned Henry Borthwick obtained the title in 1762, by decision of
the House of Lords, and was the tenth Lord Borthwick. He married at
Edinburgh 5th march 1770, Margaret, daughter of George Drummond
of Broich, in Stirlingshire, but died, without issue, at Newcastle, on his
way to London, 6th September 1772, when the title again became
dormant, and so remains. At the time of his death his heir male, Archibald
Borthwick, was in Norway. In 1807 his claim to the title, which was before
the House of Lords, was opposed by John Borthwick, Esq., of Crookston, as
descended through nine generations in a direct male line, from John de
Borthwick of Crookston, second son of the first Lord Borthwick. Mr.
Borthwick of Crookston acquired the property of Borthwick castle by
purchase. He married, in 1787, Grizel, eldest daughter of George Adinston,
Esq. of Carcant, and left, at his decease, a son and successor, John
Borthwick, Esq. of Crookston and Borthwick castle. Various proceedings have
taken place in the case before the House of Lords, but as yet there has been
no decision.

James Borthwick of
Stow, a cadet of the Crookston family, practised as a physician in
Edinburgh, and deserves notice as having caused the disjunction of the
corporation of surgeons from that of the barbers, which previously formed
one corporation.

A view of
Borthwick castle is given in Grose’s Antiquities of Scotland, and in
Billings’ Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities, vol. i. It consists
principally of a vast square tower, with square and round bastions at equal
distances from its base. The walls are thirteen feet thick near the bottom,
and towards the top are gradually contracted to about six feet. Besides the
sunk story, they are, from the adjacent area to the battlement, ninety feet
high, and if the roof is included, the whole height will be about one
hundred and ten feet. The great hall is forth feet long, and so high in the
roof that, says Nisbet, “a man on horseback might turn a spear in it with
all the ease imaginable.” The following is a woodcut of this once
magnificent structure:

The
master-gunner of James the Fourth was named Robert Borthwick, and seven
great cannons, cast by him, called the seven sisters, were taken out of the
castle of Edinburgh to the fatal field of Flodden. Of this person, Balfour,
in his Annals, [vol. i. p. 232] under the year 1509, has the following
notice: “This zeire, the king entertained one Robert Borthwick, quho foundit
and caste maney pices of brasse ordinance of all sisses, in Edinburgh
castle, all of them having thie inscriptione: ‘Machina sum Scoto Borthwick
fabricata Roberto.’”

Among those persecuted by Cardinal Bethune, on account of their adopting the
principles of the Reformation, was Sir John Borthwick, who was cited before
the ecclesiastical court at St. Andrews in 1540 for heresy. Thirteen charges
were preferred against him, but in particular that he had dispersed
heretical books. Sir John fled to England, and not appearing in court when
called, the charges against him were held as confessed. He was condemned on
the 28th May to be burnt as a heretic; his goods were
confiscated, his effigy was burnt in the market-place of St. Andrews, and
all men were inhibited from harbouring or protecting him. Sir John was
graciously received by Henry the Eighth, and sent by him on a mission to the
Protestant princes of Germany, to concert a confederacy between them, in
defence of the reformed religion.

BORTHWICK,
DAVID
of Lochhill, a learned lawyer and judge, was lord advocate of Scotland in
the reign of James the Sixth, before which time he was usually designated
“Mr. David Borthwick of Auldistone.” He was one of the nine advocates
selected by the court of session, on the first March 1540, to plead “befoir
thame in all actions and causes.” In 1552 he was made a member of the public
commission appointed to treat with the English commissioners on border
affairs. In the Burgh Records of Aberdeen we find the following entry under
date 17th August, 1562; “The said day, the prowest, baillies, and
counsell ordanis Patre Menzes, thesaurar, to sen Maister Dauid Borthuik,
procuratour for the toun in the cause of varandiae mowit aganis thame be
William Forbes, to defend the said mater, sax pound Scottis.” [Extracts
from Burgh Records of Aberdeen, 1398-1570, printed for the Spalding
Club, o 346.] In June 1564 he was counsel for the magistrates and
town-council of Edinburgh in a prosecution against them, and in May 1567, as
counsel for the earl of Bothwell, he took instruments of Queen Mary’s pardon
and forgiveness of him and his accomplices for her abduction to Dunbar,
which her majesty pronounced in court on the 12th of that month.
In 1573, Borthwick became, with Crichton of Elliock, father of the admirable
Crichton, joint king’s advocate, when, as was then customary, he took his
seat as a lord of session. He appears to have been the first who bore the
title of “Lord Advocate.” The salary of this functionary at that period was
forth pounds Scots yearly, and that of a lord of session amounted to about
the same sum, considered a good deal of money in those days. Borthwick died
in January 1581. He had acquired estates in the counties of Berwick,
Haddington, and Fife, in which, before his death, he had infeft his son
James, whose extravagance and improvidence caused some of them to be sold
even in his father’s lifetime. This circumstance induced the old gentleman,
on his deathbed, to exclaim bitterly, “What shall I say? I give him to the
devil that doth get a fool, and maketh not a fool of him,” a saying that
became proverbial, as David Borthwick’s testament. – Haig and Brunton’s
Senators of College of Justice.

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